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Snapple Bottle tower (tradition)
A tradition in place since 2009, the Snapple tower is a painstaking and task undertaken every year in session one. They who take on this burden must cull upwards of one hundred Snapple jars in order to create a pyramidal structure around which students gather during the Candlelit Ceremony. The structure works on the principle that one Snapple jar can be supported by three below it. Snapple jars are collected throughout the session and assembled during the last week (or more realistically the last two days) before the last disco and brought out into the quad during the last disco, along with candles. The Snapple tower stays up for the night, to be dismantled after the Passionfruit ceremony on The Day the Music Died. History =2009= The snapple tower was first built at the end of session 1, 2009. Declan publicly spread the word that he was collecting Snapple bottles for a secret project. He also had it announced in the talent show, where the MCs teased him with a Snapple bottle, which he was desperate to get hold of, despite having completed all he was going to do on the tower at that time. It was finally revealed what his opus magnum was: the first CTYI Snapple tower. It was exquisitely crafted, was held together totally without cellotape, only PVA glue, which led to it being surprisingly fragile. It also glimmered with the light of all that is good with the world. Luckily no one touched it, as most people thought it was all balanced. It is arguably the most elegant Snapple tower built to date. =2010= In 2010, the second Snapple monument was erected (tee hee). This was met with critcism, as many believed it was a one-time thing that belonged to the memory of Declan. However, it was this push that led to it becoming the tradition it is today. This tower was not nearly as sleek as the original, and many thought it tacky to add luminous liquid (from glowsticks diluted in water - it was very dim) into the outer bottles. It was also built with sheets of cardboard in between the layers, further subtracting from the aesthetic. However, in the long run the tower was almost as important as the original, as it was from this one that the tradition truly started. =2011= In 2011, the Snapple tower was held together with cellotape. =2012= In 2012, the Snapple bottles were collected by Gingey, and it was assembled by several people Including Fionn Keeley and Miguel Fuentes Montiu (the other two members of the trinity), Lorcan Daly, Cormac White and others. This was the first year the tower was not triangle, but was instead for the first time hexagonal, which is actually harder to make than you think. =2013= Session 1 In 2013 the Snapple bottles were collected by Lorcan Daly, who had the good fortune of having no roommate and so an entire room in which to gather his loot. He managed to collect over 211 Snapple bottles over the course of the session and a hexagonal tower was designed that was projected to be 9 Snapple bottles high. Other builders included Daire Bricklad Coburn, Fionn Ó Maoileoin and Cormac White; all Nevermores . Unfortunately, the tower was not constructed as planned. Because rules stated (for the first time all of a sudden) that we couldn't leave a big tower of glass in the quad unattended due to anticipated Sportalian interference, two R.A.s had to run back to the Larkfield residential block near the end of the final disco to take each layer out of Lorcan's room and move them out to the quad to be assembled into what should have been the tallest Snapple bottle tower ever, even with its more resource-draining shape. When the RAs set out to assemble the parts in the quad, they weren't made aware of how exactly it was supposed to be put together. As a result they failed to get it to stay up properly without collapsing. This led to them being forced to compromise and build two two smaller towers. This was not preferred by the students, but is remarkable in that it was not only the first hexagonal pyramid attempt but also the first time that two Snapple towers had been made. Session 2 Another first came about in 2013 when Dáire Bricklad Coburn, Mark Finn, Eoin Cassidy and various others co-ordinated their efforts to create the first session 2 Snapple pyramid. Having recently seen Lorcan Daly's hexagonal pyramid in construction, Dáire attempted to gather as many bottles as possible without campaigning overly publicly and annoying everyone. The total aggregation came to approximately 80 Snapple bottles, culminating in a triangular pyramid held together by five rolls of cellotape that was, like, super cheap in Spar, borrowed from Emmet, Dáire's roommate (thanks kitty xoxxoxoxxxxoxoxox). 2014 The 2014 Session 1 Snapple tower was spearheaded by Thomas White, amassing a total of 350 bottles and followed the hexagonal format of the previous towers. This was the largest Snapple tower to date, reaching over seven layers high. Session 2's was broken - nay, destroyed - by one Seán Lysaght before its unveiling. 2015 Session 1 2015's tower was organized by Kevin Fletcher, with assistance from Ewan Smith and Eoin O'Donnell. While initial collection was slow, the tower was salvaged with a supply drop from Daire Coburn during his crashing of blanch, who had spent the previous year consuming as much Snapple as he physically could in lieu of studying for his Summer Exams. The endeavor placed them ahead by 60 bottles, but landed Coburn, our savior, with stage/type/deathbysugaromigawd 2 diabeetus. Collection continued as usual, up until the final day where they (at end count) collected roughly 370 empty jars. However, due to RA demands, construction could not begin in the quad until after the final RA meeting. While seemingly reasonable, the chain of events that followed threatened the likelihood that the Snapple tower would end up being built after all of the team's efforts. As the Snapple Squad rushed back to the res to begin transporting the layers outside in the 30 minutes between the end of RA meeting and the beginning of the closing ceremony, the fire alarm was pulled. What followed was a desperate attempt to gather everyone in the fire assembly area at the back of the res, RA miscommunication that led to people re-entering the res before it was deemed 'safe' to do so, and their RA Callum's disappearance. What was a 40 minute window of construction, swiftly became 15. Placing their faith in the hands of the RA's they begged that one accompany them back to the quad after the closing ceremony, as it was felt the Snapple tower was too important to not be built. Despite the ever darker scenario they found themselves in, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Darren (The Arc) permitted them to return to the Quad for 20 minutes with an escort of Matt the RA, and a workforce of 6 (Kevin Fletcher, Kevin Cummins, Conal Gilliland, Eoin O'Donnell, Ewan Smith, and James Kirwan). The tower was constructed in the hexagonal pattern akin to the previous years, with a base hexagon of side 7. While using up the majority of the bottles collected throughout the session, many were left over. This prompted a gift of a Snapple bottle to nevermores attending the Passionfruit ceremony the following morning. 2016 On the final day of Session 1 2015, Kevin Cummins and James Kirwan were nominated to collect bottles for and construct the Snapple tower for session 1 2016. Kevin Fletcher gave his fez to Kevin Cummins to symbolise this.